Dalai Lama to hold Twitter chat today

Staff writer, 21st May 2010

The Dalai Lama is to hold his first Twitter conversation today, bringing spiritual sustenance to Buddhists in China in 140 characters or fewer.

The hour-long chat session will be broadcast via the Twitter account of Wang Lixiong, a Chinese writer and activist who has been vocal in supporting Tibet's claims for independence.

The Dalai Lama is expected to answer around 250 questions, mainly from Chinese citizens. The questions were selected through online voting on a Google Moderator site, according to AFP.

Although Twitter is offically blocked in China, it's actually widely available, as Twitter allows third-party applications and servers to freely use its data. As many as 150,000 Chinese have an account, AFP said, of whom 100,000 live on the mainland.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has had a Twitter account since February - although an impostor caused a little confusion for a while until he was suspended.

"Meeting so many people from all over the world and from every walk of life constantly reminds me of our basic sameness as human beings," he says.